Eiji Teruya, a third-generation Japanese Brazilian and the son of a migrant worker, will, it is believed, be the first Brazilian to qualify as a lawyer in Japan, having recently passed the country's bar exam.

The accomplishment of Teruya, 26, from Aichi Prefecture, who overcame financial hardships and language barriers, has already spread in the Brazilian community by word of mouth, providing a ray of hope among children of foreign migrants.

Teruya says he wants to protect the rights of foreigners in Japan as a lawyer while expressing the hope that young foreigners can shine in the country.

"There are a lot of paths. I hope (young foreigners) will be encouraged to pursue their own ambitions by hungrily looking to their future," he said, adding being able to speak a different language in addition to Japanese "will be a weapon in pursuing any field."

Having moved to Japan at the age of 8, Teruya grew up in a single-mother household. He spent his after-school hours at home watching TV programs while his mother Regina, 45, was busy working at a factory.

He said he learned about the work lawyers do by watching TV dramas. He recalls how he was inspired by the way in which lawyers sided with the weak and crushed the strong as he considered himself a socially vulnerable person.

Although compulsory education is offered free at public schools in Japan, related expenses for his lunch, school trips, school uniform and gym clothes took a financial toll on his mother who began to look "gaunt" even in the eyes of Teruya as a little boy.

Teruya had poor academic records in elementary and junior high schools but he told his high school teacher that he wanted to enter Nagoya University's law department to become a lawyer. He still appreciates how the teacher took seriously what seemed a pipe dream at that time.

Teruya studied five hours every day after school and eight hours during the holidays for six months to prepare for the university entrance exam, which he successfully passed. After completing Nagoya University's law school, he also passed the bar exam at his first attempt.

Yoshimi Kojima, an associate professor at Aichi Shukutoku University who has conducted extensive research into human rights of foreigners in Japan, said, there have been some Brazilians who became teachers and local public servants in Japan and she is happy to finally see a lawyer.

"It is highly meaningful that young Brazilians are encouraged and their spirits are lifted by such role models," she said, but added that the situation remains tough for many foreigners who try to earn qualifications in Japan despite persistent discrimination that disregards their abilities.

Teruya is currently undergoing mandatory legal training and could officially become a lawyer as early as the end of this year.

While foreigners are eligible to take the bar exam, only Japanese nationals were previously allowed to take the legal training that was required to practice law.

A Korean resident in Japan who passed the exam in 1976 demanded the Supreme Court, which oversees the appointment of legal apprentices, scrap the rule and the top court in 1977 changed the regulations, paving the way for foreigners to become lawyers under the Japanese system.

Tokuji Izumi, a former Supreme Court justice who was involved in the 1977 decision, welcomes the increasing number of foreign lawyers in Japan.

"In foreign countries there are many active Japanese lawyers, so this is just a natural consequence. There are more than 2.5 million foreigners in Japan...It is good for Japanese society that foreign lawyers who can understand their problems can work as lawyers," Izumi said.